August 11, 2023

Paul Scanlon on The Art of Unlearning, Developing 'Get Back Up' Skills When Life Gets Difficult and Why It's Okay To Outgrow People (From The 2021 Archive)

54 minutes

This episode first aired on 3rd May 2021 Are you enjoying the podcast? Please leave a rating and a review. Paul Scanlon has trained and mentored people for over 30 years as a keynote speaker all over the world. After three decades in the not-for-profit sector, Paul has successfully transitioned and reinvented himself as an educator through both his LIVE and online Masterclass events in Communication, Leadership, and Personal Development. Paul's three strands of focus are: Communication, Leadership, and Human Flourishing. His hallmark is making complex things simple. Paul passionately believes it's more important to grow people than things. He believes that there's greatness in everyone and knows that most need the help of a well- chosen coach or mentor to discover it. He is also the host of the podcast Growing Big People with Paul Scanlon. This was a fantastic conversation and one I am very grateful for having. Although Paul's microphone quality isn't as high as other podcast guests, the value he speaks more than makes up for it. This was a mini therapy session for me so I hope you get as much from it as I did. Key Points ∙One of the big traps people fall into, especially with the political and cultural climate nowadays, is boxing themselves into a certain identity, or what Paul calls "labels". By labeling yourself solely by your sex, race, political affiliation, or religion, you adopt the "ghetto mentality" and limit your potential to grow and connect with people around you. Avoid imprisoning yourself in an echo chamber and open your mind to all that the world offers. ∙Social media has normalized our natural human tendencies to focus on the "highlight reels" of those we admire. This has created a generation of people who lack "getting- back-up" skills. Paul encourages us to read stories of great people and pay attention more to how they recover from setbacks than to the glitz and glamour of success that only comes after endless trials and hardships. ∙It's so hard to let go of beliefs, habits, and behaviours that are no longer serving us because 1) we don't know what to replace it with, and 2) we often learn these things via people we respect like our parents, and we fear upsetting that person by changing. It's okay to outgrow people. In fact, almost every new version of you that emerges involves leaving someone behind.

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